Friday, May 16, 2014

Four Roses 2014 Limited Edition Single Barrel Is a Tribute to Bourbon Fans

Four Roses Bourbon has two annual limited edition releases, a Single Barrel in the spring and a Small Batch in the fall. This spring's Single Barrel is an 11-year-old OESF, which means it's their 20 percent rye mash bill with their herbal essence yeast. (Four Roses makes ten different bourbon recipes.) It's also barrel strength, which will range between 108.3° and 127.6° proof (54.15% ABV to 63.8% ABV).

"This year's Limited Edition Single Barrel is a tribute to the loyal following we are so fortunate to have," said Master Distiller Jim Rutledge. "This bourbon went into the barrel and was put away at a time when Four Roses had just returned to the states and it's remarkable to see how far we've come as a company since then."

The bottle proclaims the tribute by including a toast submitted during the Year of the Toast campaign that celebrated Four Roses 125th anniversary. The winner, from Frank Wheatley of Louisville: "If I could age like bourbon, I wouldn't mind getting old."

'Limited,' in this case, means 5,000 bottles. It should be in stores by Father's Day.

I just learned that 5,000 bottles will be released in the USA, and another 2,122 are going to Europe and other places. The second number is so precise because bottles are numbered like art x/y where x=bottle number and y=number of bottles in the release.